Side Reins - A Quandary

Thanks to Horseproblems.com.au for the photo!

Every now and then you just have to bite your tongue, swallow your words, take things back.  I am now doing something I honestly never thought I'd do and have actively disapproved of and criticized from time to time.

I started using a "tie down" - in addition to my regular lesson with Daniela my dressage instructor I also requested a "minilesson" from her on lungeing since she has always told me to use side reins and finally convinced me, but I didn't want to start without her showing me how.  So now when I lunge Starbuck (Daniela has instructed me to lunge every other time I ride, so Sunday ride, Monday lunge, Tuesday ride, Wednesday lunge... although with the rain we've had and barn kitties to neuter it's been more like Sunday ride, Monday lunge, Tuesday lunge, Wednesday lunge, Thursday take the cat to the vet, Friday get the cat back from the vet...), after warming up in a "long and low" position at walk and trot without anything at all, I put on the side reins so her nose is just a couple of centimeters in front of the vertical when the reins are taut and do about 15 minutes of work (mostly trot with some transitions) before detaching them and doing some trot and canter work without them, then cooling off "long and low" again.

Instead of buying fancy side reins, Dani assured me I could simply use some old reins I had lying around - the kind made of cloth webbing with leather nubs every 4 inches or so - and tie them to the saddle girth or the surcingle.  They go straight from the bit to the girth (fixed point reins) and at the moment I'm tying them a little below the height where the girth is attached to the saddle.  The nubs help me remember exactly what length to tie them, too.  The idea is to see how this goes and then decide whether to keep using them and how, change to another type of auxiliary rein like sliding side reins or drop them altogether.  So far so good, right?

But here's the thing - even though I said yes to this, I am still terrified of the side reins.  I mean having-anxiety-dreams-about-them, keeping-my-hands-from-shaking-when-I-attach-them terrified.  In the past I've used elastic reins noce or twice when lungeing Starbuck and even a couple of times riding her in the roundpen for seat improvement exercises (no reins or no stirrups or no saddle or a combination thereof).  But they've always been loose enough that she could put her head up as much as she wanted, and I've never dared to use any other type of "tie down" mostly because I think it's the kind of thing that can very easily turn into a disaster by someone who's ignorant of how to do it.  I'm afraid I'll put her into a false frame her body won't be able to handle or ruin the sensitivity of her mouth or make her sore or sour or give her irremediable back injuries or cause her to flip over backwards and all other kinds of bad things.  However Daniela has assured me that none of these things are likely to happen as long as I use them correctly and responsibly at the exact length she's shown me to set them at for now and keep Starbuck moving forward.  Also, I figure with so many people I admire and respect using them (Daniela herself, Reiner and Ingrid Klimke, Sue Morris, Will Faerber, etc...) I shouldn't knock them until I've tried them.  And I have to admit, Starbuck looks so gorgeous in them that sometimes I get distracted just looking at her.

So here I am swallowing my words and steadying my hands, and hoping both that the benefits (like improved topline musculature, actually tracking up, steadier rhythm, better acceptance of contact, more impulsion and rounder movement) outweigh the risks and that in fact, the risks themselves will prove to be mostly a figment of my overactive, anxious imagination.  I'll keep you posted, in the meanwhile if anyone has any experience using auxiliary reins with their own horse for lungeing I'd be thrilled to hear it.



By the way two other random things to mention:

I changed bits a couple of weeks ago - started using a 13 mm three-piece full cheek snaffle.  It's thicker than the old D-ring and even though it's 100% stainless and doesn't have the fancy copper insets the D-ring does she definitely seems to like it better.  More slobber, more chewing and as soon as I put it in her mouth when bridling her she drops her head down.

And on the ridden portion of last Saturday's dressage lesson, Daniela pinpointed leg yielding and walk to canter to walk transitions as things to work on in the next two weeks, as well as continuing the shoulder in at walk to trot transitions.  I'm so glad my friend Cinthya decided to offer to take these lessons with me since Dani will only come for two people (she lives halfway across the island) and I feel like we learn so much.  On top of what I'm learning, Dani is very encouraging about Starbuck which makes me feel like as clueless as I was going into this (and still am now) I haven't screwed up too bad.

You Can Classic Online Dressage Portal

As you guys know, every now and then I like to give a little shout-out to folks who I feel provide an excellent service for horsepeople, like Marina the NH guru at my stable or the folks at Gredos Ecuestre who organize such fabulous long-distance horseback rides.  So here's another one - my dressage instructor Daniela has finally launched her new international online interactive dressage training portal at www.youcanclassic.com.

Now I've honestly never been much of a fan of video learning - my impatient and ADD brain prefers books and articles to videos as I'd rather scan ahead and pinpoint exactly what information I'm interested in rather than watch an entire 10 minute video in order to find the 2 minutes which I actually end up finding useful.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I found that nearly all the videos on the portal are under 5 minutes and many are just 2-3 minutes long.  And each video is dedicated to just one exercise you can do with your horse, with condensed instructions on how to best do so and basic troubleshooting - no long and rambling introduction or conclusion "selling you" on why to do it or summing up all its possible benefits.  The first time I visited the site I found myself viewing one video after another until I discovered I had spent about an hour watching without ever getting bored or impatient - and those were just the "preview" lessons.

Here's an example preview lesson I found especially useful working on teaching the meaning of the outside rein.

As you can see, in just two minutes I have a new exercise to apply while riding Starbuck, easily incorporated into our daily routine.  And the nice thing about a video rather than a book or article is that the movement you're looking for from the horse as well as the correct rider position is visible throughout.  Also, more and more I'm learning to try to visualize (literally, create a picture in my mind) what I'm trying to get Starbuck and I do when I ask for a certain movement which is proving difficult for her to understand - and being able to simply replay the video either in my mind or -since the website is optimized for mobile use- even pulling my phone out of my pocket to quickly refresh my memory is a big help with this.

Daniela recorded the videos, which are available in English and in German, with her two horses - her fabulous Prix St George level warmblood and his son, a 6 year old colt who's just starting out.  So there are videos for nearly all levels of dressage, from beginning groundwork both on the lunge, double lunge (ground driving) and in-hand or the young horse's first lateral steps to tempi changes and collected canter.  And not only dressage is covered - gymnastic jumping, games and warm-up, winter, obedience and stretching exercises to keep your horse interested and supple are also featured.  There's also a blog where you can get a better overall idea of her training philosophy and a forum to share your experiences or ask questions, and aside from the free "preview" lessons and blog posts there are several subscription levels with a huge library of "Pro" videos, from a one-day pass to a "gold" subscription which includes video coaching, direct contact with Daniela and discounted clinic prices.

I highly recommend the website to anyone who's looking for some fresh ideas to incorporate into their training or riding routine (especially if you like groundwork as much as I do) and can personally attest as to the effectiveness of Daniela's training style and her knowledge, feel and experience - in the past two months Starbuck's movement, attitude and even her conformation (yay topline muscles!) have improved unmistakably and I feel much more confident about working on our own now that I have these new resources at my disposal and have started to reap the results.  And what's most important to me is that she's very sensitive to the horse's comfort and future wellbeing as well - for instance at the moment she has me using side reins when lunging but we warm up and cool off without them and only use them for short periods of time, and when riding after 10 or 15 minutes of "hard work" (i.e. lateral work or using more than a light contact) she always reminds us to have a rest walking actively on a loose rein.  And I can honestly say that Starbuck enjoys her work more now that she's starting to build the muscle to make it physically easier and is learning that her body can do new, powerful and fun things.

So if you have a minute, trot on over to www.youcanclassic.com and check it out - you won't be sorry!

Agility

Sorry guys, this is an old post (from December 9th or so) which I wrote and forgot to post.  But I definitely want to post it to remember the exercises so here goes:

Yesterday (well actually about 18 days ago) was a bank holiday in Spain (immaculate conception day, if you can believe that) and since we had hardly any classes last week due to rain, Marina ignored her no-class-on-Mondays rule and gave a regular riding lesson in the morning and a groundwork agility lesson in the afternoon.  I was too busy flying back from Madrid (a nice trip by the way) to go to the regular lesson but I did make it to the groundwork lesson, and boy am I glad I did - we had a great time and I really got some good advice from Marina to put into practice.

We started out with a little longeing to warm up, and then Marina put us to work on a sort of obstacle course she had put together - we had to stay at any of the "stations" long enough to get the horse to go through it correctly, then move on to another one.  If any of the "stations" got to be easy, we had to up the difficulty level by standing farther away from the horse, or doing it in trot rather than walk.

Here's a diagram of the different stations, the smiley face is the person and the green arrows are where the horse is supposed to go.  Below the diagram is a brief description of each station - all of them were to do in both directions.

1 - Two tires about 3 feet apart inside a square formed by four jump poles (maybe 8 - 9 feet long each).  The person stayed outside the square, the horse inside.  The horse had to make a complete circuit of the square without stepping outside, then change direction through the two tires.  This was incredibly difficult, we only did it well like 3 times.

2 - This was a larger, partially open square made of the blue and yellow cushion-like training bars with two cones placed in each corner.  The person was inside the square, and the horse had to go around the square between the bars and cones, without stepping outside.

3 - This was a simple low crossrails jump using two tires as the standards.

4 - Parallel jump poles in an "L" shape.  The horse had to go between the two poles without stepping outside, with the person outside the poles.  Starbuck and I even did it backwards a few times.

5 - Three pairs of cones for the horse to walk between, with the person walking alongside.  This was really easy until I tried to get farther (like 3 - 4 feet) away from Starbuck, then it was much harder to get her to go through the cones.

6 - Ground poles to go over in a circle.  Using only my dressage whip and not having a longe whip, it was difficult to keep her at a trot, but we ended up figuring it out.

7 - This is a solid "wall" made out of plywood in an elongated pyramid shape for the horses to jump in a circle.

8 - Two tires about 6 feet apart.  The person stood back about 6 feet away from them and had to send the horse in a figure eight between and around the two tires.  We've done this before so it wasn't impossible, but she would still "skip" a tire every now and then.

The main thing I took away from the lesson was that instead of just "ignoring" incorrect responses and trying again, Marina suggests I try really hard to stop Starbuck before she does the wrong thing and re-set it up so she can do the right one.  For instance, going around the figure eight tires, I often have the problem where I "undersend" and she doesn't quite make it around one on one side.  Until now, I've always simply let her finish and then try harder the next time.  But Marina says that if I see she's going to "miss" a tire, I should stop her, back her up if I need to and re-send her - repeating all of this until she does it right.  And I could definitely tell she was thinking about it and trying to work it out when she finally made it through and I was reminded of an article I read way back when I started working with her, about replacing the flight response with a problem-solving mindset so the horse gets in the habit of thinking before it reacts.  I don't remember who wrote it, but it's definitely something to keep in mind when working with Starbuck.

Marina also recommended that instead of just doing 10 minutes of walk to warm up before ridden lessons, I work on some of these exercises to warm up and get Starbuck focused on me.  I think this is a fabulous idea and am going to try to remember to do it!

Here and here are two Facebook videos of the lesson (sorry if the visibility's limited, a friend of mine made it), I definitely hope we do more like this in the future.

A bad day

We had a pretty bad day yesterday, Starbuck and I.  We were accompanied by Virginia and Coco, René and Rodrigo, Ana and Pepa and Carmen and Trueno - right off the bat Starbuck was very possesive of Coco and pinned her ears and pointed her butt at anyone who came near.  This was annoying but not really troubling to me - I tend to just ignore the pinned ears and try to see it as an opportunity to improve my leg aids getting her rear end back on track.  In addition to acting bitchy, she was also really full of beans - trying to get in front constantly and just general ADHD stuff - for instance when we got to a park with some hills where the other horses just walked calmly, she just had to gallop up, nearly unseating me when I lost my stirrups.  Thank goodness I remembered to grab mane and turn her in a circle.

 It went on and on - nothing too terrible for the most part but just her being only barely controllable, which wound me up, which wound her up even further, which made things worse.  To look on the bright side, it was a really interesting new route we'd never been on before with what looked like plenty of new places to explore on future rides, we did a fair amount of trotting on varied terrain so she was able to use her muscles differently than she does in the arena, and she was certainly tracking up the entire time.  One of the things I think is so valuable about our trail rides is that I don't tend to have to push her and can really practice trotting and cantering without constant leg cues, and yesterday was no exception - only I ended up with a sore back, a tension headache and blisters on my hands from the reins, so I don't even want to think about (but am making myself acknowledge) how her back and mouth must have felt.

On the way home things were even worse - she broke into a full out gallop several times and to discipline her I took what may not have been one of my best decisions of all time - every time she broke into a gallop I'd turn her around, walk her to the end of the group and only let her catch up with the group at a walk or a slow trot.  This understandably pissed her off even more, but I can't always let her have her way, especially if it entails unsafe behavior around other horses.  Anyhow this strategy worked more or less until we got back to the hilly park, where the rest of the horses walked down the hill and since she wanted to gallop and I wasn't able to rate her, I wouldn't let her go after them.  We circled and circled at the top of the hill and as the rest of the horses moved on out of sight she got more and more frantic until finally my friend Virginia came back with Coco to rescue us and we followed them down - at a trot, which was faster than I wanted but slower than Starbuck wanted.  I guess this is an example of “a good negotiation is one where both parties walk equally unhappy”.  I am now convinced that what I should have done is get off then and walk her down in hand, but I was too frantic to think clearly about anything but my aids and immediate strategy for not getting us killed.

The most serious scare was when we passed some people who were fixing a stone wall on the side of the road - a little old lady helping them started telling me "How lovely to see people riding horses out here in the countryside on a Sunday" when two cars passed us and Starbuck freaked out, lunging towards the poor little old lady before getting back in line and passing her.  She didn't get closer than about 5 feet, but still - it was still much too close for comfort and I felt awful for the poor lady.  I was so freaked out I don't even remember if I apologized.  Then only a few minutes later Carmen's horse Trueno got a little closer to Starbuck's rear end than she wanted and she gave a mini buck and then a BIG buck when he didn't heed the first one - thankfully he wasn't close enough for her to reach him but still... I was really losing it at this point - after two hours of tension and barely controlled explosions I was starting to really feel angry and superfrustrated and noticed that I was starting to do things like jerk on the reins and use the whip as a punishment.  So as soon as we got off the road I stopped her as soon as I could and jumped off and led her the rest of the way back to the stable, which was good for both of our backs anyway.  But I was feeling guilty, pissed, and scared.

By the time I longed her in the arena (no way she was getting off easy after the ride she gave me), showered her, rubbed her down and gave her a nice pile of hay, I was able to be a little more philosophical.  I do think my biggest mistake was not getting off earlier but trying to muscle my way through her craziness by riding, so next time I'll bring my long lead rope so I can do some emergency longeing if I need to.  Lesson # 1 learned.  Other lessons: it's important to be reminded from time to time that no matter how well she behaves on one trail ride (or lesson, or show, or whatever...), it's no guarantee she'll behave so well the next time, and that I can't get cocky since I still can't necessarily control her all the time.  I'm also going to get a green ribbon for her tail to give people (myself included) a visual reminder that she's not completely predictable, and I will never again stop right in front of a little old lady, even if it means being rude.

Mostly, I have to remember that we all have bad days, and I can't get bogged down or discouraged by this one, no matter how harrowing it was.  After all, it wasn't SO bad - we discovered a new route and went on a trail ride in sketchy (wind, dark threatening clouds) weather without maiming anyone, including ourselves.  And although it was touch and go at some points, I WAS still able to control her in the end.  I'm even trying to be optimistic and remember that usually when she has several really bad days close together it generally signals a learning spurt.  But still, next year she's getting liability insurance - it'll be one less thing to worry about.

Onwards...

Things have been going really well with Starbuck for the past few weeks.  We've still got a little bit of work to do on stopping when I want to, but this is generally only an issue once in a long while when she's gotten excited after jumping or a spook.  And we're still struggling with tracking up, but I honestly think that it's something which can't be forced and that if we work towards that goal bit by bit and I'm careful to ride her responsibly, we'll eventually get there.  But she's much more consistent than she was even six months ago - I don't have to push her as hard to keep her going when she's feeling lazy, or work quite so hard to slow her down when she's in a tizzy.  And aside from a few highly controllable spooks, we've been able to join in all the lessons with the best of 'em and above all for a couple of weeks I've been really enjoying every single ride with her which sounds pretty basic but by no means is the norm for us - generally she makes me work pretty hard and fear for my life once or twice in return for a truly enjoyable session.

Here's a nice jump we made last week, I'm so glad this one was the one caught on camera because most of the others weren't nearly so pretty - heels up, weight too far forward, crooked arrivals and departures, Starbuck scattering all the practice rail/pad thingys Marina uses for these exercises all over the arena - you get the picture.  But as you can see we ended up doing it more or less well and ended with me being thoroughly satisfied with my little filly.

In other news, my friend Ivón saw a photo from last week's "Parelli session" on Facebook and commented "Whoa, Parelli already?! At this rate you'll be doing Spanish Walk next month!".  So I've accepted her challenge and yesterday started teaching Starbuck Spanish Walk.  My method is based on (well, pretty much copied from) this one and what I'm more or less planning is this:

1. With me standing on the ground beside her, teach Starbuck to lift her leg when it's tapped once with the crop (we did this yesterday).  1 week (5-10 minutes a day) of training working up to her lifting her leg when the crop is twirled in the air instead of her leg being tapped.
2. Teach Starbuck to extend her leg forward when she lifts it.  1 week of drills when warming up / cooling down.
3. Teach Starbuck to do this alternately with both legs - left, right, left, right.  1 week of drills.
4. Teach Starbuck to move forward with each lift-and-extend.  1 week of drills.
5. Teach Starbuck to do all this from the saddle - depending on how good a job I've done up until then this will be harder or easier.  Hopefully I'll be able to cue with the crop-twirl and away she'll go walking Spanish, but I have a feeling it won't be that simple.

So far, she finds this lifting her leg thing very boring, but I bet that'll change when I start factoring in treats next week.  It took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the point where she'd lift either leg consistently with one tap from the crop, and she still takes a few seconds to do it, but I decided it'd be best to quit while I was ahead and keep working on it a little bit every day.  This kind of ground training is the type of thing we did a lot when I first got her (standing tied, walking forward to a cue from a rope around her leg, head down cue, etc...) and I think it was good for my patience, her focus and our overall relationship, so I'm excited to get back to this kind of thing.  After Spanish Walk I want to teach her to lie down on cue, I think that'd be really neat too.

It's been a long journey to get to this point, but what I love most about having a young horse is that there's so many different things I want to do and this way we'll hopefully get to do all of them together.

Weekly Update

Lots of stuff to catch up on here, I took last Thursday and Friday off and was too lazy all weekend to write any of it down.  So here goes:

I had a nice trail ride last Sunday (not yesterday but a week before), this time neither of Starbuck's "big sisters" (best friend Coco and next-door neighbor Melyne) came along so I was a little worried about how she'd do.  But she really behaved quite well and only got a little out-of-control when we were trotting homewards - I think the adrenaline of trotting plus heading home plus lunchtime plus traffic was a little too exciting for her.  But nothing more challenging than a few more spooks than we had heading out, so I think we're really progressing on the trail rides.  Also without meaning to we ended up wearing parcheesi colored t-shirts, which was fun.

Rode on my own on Monday - Starbuck worked extremely well and was an absolute pleasure to ride.  We did a figure of eight exercise where we cantered around the extremeties and then transitioned to a trot on the diagonal, then back to a canter on the new lead.  It obviously wasn't easy for her but I didn't realize how hard it must have been until afterwards when I realized that she had sweat quite a bit on her hindquarters and not at all anywhere else. So I think this will be a good exercise to add to my toolbox for those days when she has energy to burn, and remember not to do too many repetitions.

Tuesday I had a normal lesson which I don't remember very well what we did, but it went tolerably well.  Wednesday I came down with the cold that ate Chicago and stayed in bed all day, but Thursday I was well enough to get out to the stable in the morning, which was fabulous since Marina had the time and inclination to give me a lunge lesson.

What an incredible lesson - after a few "laps" she told me to close my eyes and tie my reins to the saddle so they wouldn't get in the way and I did the rest of the lesson with no hands.  I've never ridden much without hands - a few canter laps with my arms up like airplane wings going "wheeee" is about the extent of my expertise so this was pretty new for me.  And boy was it a terrific experience!  Without the weight of my arms pulling my shoulders forward I very naturally reverted to the correct "heels - hips - shoulders" vertical position and found myself way more balanced.  And keeping my eyes closed really made me rely on feel alone to stay with Starbuck's movements, although I had to peek from time to time to keep from getting dizzy.  It was really liberating and I was able to "memorize" the sensation so that I can try to duplicate the same position when I'm riding the rest of the time.

Note - this is NOT the position to duplicate ;-}

So we worked on rising trot with "cycling" motion in arms and legs which is awkward at first but really helps you get in touch with the oscillating movement of the horse's back instead of just your standard up-down, sitting trot without stirrups working on letting my hips be carried forward, not backward, by Starbuck's movement and then walk and trot without stirrups letting my legs swing forward and backward once again in reaction to the horse's trunk swinging back and forth.    Finally we did some canter - now with stirrups since at this point I was a little dizzy - but once again it was wonderful to close my eyes, hold out my arms and focus only on following Starbuck's movement.  Imagine that - cantering on my crazy little filly with no hands and eyes closed!  It's the closest I've felt to being a centaur since I've grown up.

Things I learned during this lesson which are important to remember in the future:

• I have a lot more innate balance than I thought I did.
• The weight in my arms draws my shoulders forward.  If I keep my elbows parallel to my body, I will naturally sit up straighter than if I move them farther forward.
• If I allow Starbuck's movement to push my hips forward naturally instead of pushing them back, she moves better and I stay in balance more easily.
• I could tell when I was on the right diagonal at a rising trot going to the right with my eyes closed, but going to the left I wasn't able to feel it as easily.
• Going to the left at a sitting trot, where I felt more comfortable and safer, Marina pointed out that I wasn't letting my inside hip swing forward as loosely as going to the right, where I felt a little bouncy and off-balance.

Then fairly successful lessons on Friday and Saturday - Friday we had a bit of a runaway moment where I lost my stirrups, kept jabbing Starbuck in the side when trying to recover them and finally figured out that since obviously I had been cantering around without stirrups for a while, that stopping, not getting my stirrups back, was the # 1 priority.  Another lesson for the future.  I also got a new bridle on Friday - the one I've been using is the perfect length for the hackamore but a little too short for the bits.  It was 40% off at a tack store which is closing and is real pretty - black with white stitching.  Also, this way I don't have to change from bit to hackamore every other time I ride ;-)

Saturday was kind of rainy and windy and all of the horses, not just Starbuck, were kind of antsy.  She was definitely rarin' to go - I had to throw my crop away after a few minutes - and wasn't completely comfortable with her new bridle (it has a noseband, which I've never used in the past) but I did my best to keep her attention on me and in comparison with some of the other horses, she was actually pretty calm.  Even so, I was surprised when one of the other students mentioned how well Starbuck was behaving - I guess we must be doing something right if we at least look like we have things under control.

Which brings us to yesterday, which was superwindy.  What with the wind and me not feeling like getting into a fight with Starbuck, I decided not to ride.  You gotta pick your battles.  Anyhow after cleaning her paddock we spent an hour "sharing territory" while I re-read part of an Aubrey-Maturin novel, then I longed her for a while on the scary side of the arena working on lots of transitions.  These are things I always say I'll do when I have some free time and I think it's good for her to have some exercise without me weighing her down from time to time.  Sometimes it's hard to believe that we've finally reached the point where we do much more ridden work and have to make time for groundwork - even a year ago I wasn't sure we'd ever reach that goal.  Yay progress!

Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde

Thanks to Mr. Beard for the photo!

This was certainly a weekend of ups and downs with Starbuck.  First things first, I de-wormed her on Friday - I just wanted to get that out of the way so in two or three months when I go into panic mode thinking that I haven't dewormed her in an entire year I can come back and see this post and calm down a little.  It's getting to be time to trim her hooves as well, I guess I'll call Xisco this week.  And next month the dentist is coming, I've already spoken to her so she'll set aside some time on her tour of Mallorca for us.  OK, got all the health and hygiene out of the way for now.

Friday was one of our worst days since the very beginning when Starbuck was just learning how to work on the longe line.  It was just chilly enough for me to put on a long-sleeved shirt and windy but bright and sunny - peak weather conditions for horse friskiness.  There was a jump class going on when we walked into the arena and we had to work on the scary side next to the bar and the tiger cave underneath.  Needless to say, every slight movement or sound in that area set Starbuck off on a genuinely inspired acrobatic routine of bucks, rears, jumps, spins and earth-rending gallops.  After a few tense yet spectacular minutes she finally started to settle down and I at least got her to walk half the circle on the easy side but she was still trotting on the scary side with her head way up in the air and hanging outside the circle, ears pointed at anything but me.  I admit, it was not one of our best moments and I was starting to get a little frustrated, but just as I have many many times in the past, I was asking her for transitions and changes of speed which tend to gradually get her attention back on me, even if it does take a while.

All of a sudden, I hear one of the guys at the stable shouting "She's not paying any attention to you" at me and at first I just kind of grunted to acknowledge him since this was something I was already pretty clued in to.  But he decided to keep going and shouted out "Unless you can get her attention 100% on you, you're not going to get anywhere with her!".  I am not proud of the heated argument I then proceded to engage in within earshot of everyone at the stable, but this guy is constantly criticizing others and noone ever challenges him (he is a BIG guy), plus I don't particularly agree with his style of horsemanship - since he's a big guy he tends to try to impose himself physically on horses which doesn't work so much for us short roly-poly types, not to mention that I want a relationship of affection and respect with my horse, not fear and respect.  I basically told him but that I already knew what he was telling me, that at the moment I wasn't able to get 100% attention from her but that I was working on gaining it bit by bit with transitions and that although I knew his "advice" was well meant, I was finding it more frustrating than anything else.  Which seems perfectly reasonable in print, but probably sounds a little combative when someone's shouting it at you.

Since he kept on harping on and I was getting madder and madder, I told him "You're probably right, since I can't get 100% attention from her than I won't get anything done" and walked out of the arena to cool off.  So Starbuck and I walked around the stable a couple of times until she was less panicked and I was less angry, then we went back, made our peace with this guy and proceded to work on the longe as well as we could until she was so tired that she finally relaxed.  I hate working her in tension and she was so sweaty and tired at the end but I guess sometimes you just have to let them get it all out.   At least this guy didn't make any more "suggestions", I know he means well but I respond much better to concrete suggestions like "Move the shoulder holding the whip further forward" or "Give her short tugs on the longe line" rather than nebulous criticisms which I'm already aware of.

But Saturday was such a phenomenal day for us that I decided that if we have to have a day like Friday every now and then, it's absolutely worth it!  She was a little tired and sore after her highjinks, but I was careful not to ask for too much and to stay off her back and she seemed like a completely different horse.  I've found her to be getting a little lazy to my leg cues (which is 100% my fault as a rider) so we worked on lots of keeping the same rhythm at a trot with no leg whatsoever as well as trotting over cavaletti.  She even seemed so cool that I tried out trotting over some tiny cross-rails and not only did she do it perfectly but she loved it!  We were also able to canter calmly and correctly in both directions both Saturday and Sunday, which brought a huge smile to my face.  She gave a little buck on one of the canter transitions, but then did several more without any bucking at all.

As a special bonus, on Saturday we were able to walk all around the stable yard in varying directions (there was a particular stand of trees which was way scarier coming at it from the left than when we passed it on the right) and even through the parking lot, and all of this by ourselves, without any other braver and more experienced horses leading the way.  She's actually very easy to calm down when she spooks out in the open and is so curious that once she's lost her fear she goes right up to whatever freaked her out to sniff it.

Sunday started out fairly disastrous - Starbuck freaked out when the dogs started barking at her and ran right into me, knocking me onto the ground.  Man am I sore today, especially since both hips are bruised and I sleep on my side, so every time I moved the littlest bit in bed I felt it.  So I backed her up about 20 steps, giving her a couple of energetic whacks with the end of the lead rope when she got lazy and then walked briskly around the parking lot until her attention was back on me and she had calmed down.  And once again, after saddling her and taking her out to the arena, she was completely changed - calm and focussed.  I guess I get mood swings when it's my "time of the month" too.

At any rate, our ride went so well and she was so tuned in that as we finished up and were cooling down I asked my friend Ivón if she wanted to give Starbuck a test drive, which she did and it went fine.  She only walked around the arena for a while and didn't even ask for trot, but it was the first time Starbuck was actively ridden by anyone other than me and she really behaved very well, listening attentively to Ivón's aids and not trying any funny business.  Ivón and I have made plans for her to start riding her every so often, next time I'm going to let her get a feel for Starbuck's trot while longeing her and then I think they'll be good to go.  I think it'll be really positive for Starbuck to get experience with other riders and hope to enlist some more volunteers soon.

Does anyone have any pointers (or war stories) on "sharing" your horse with other riders?

Back to Business

Wow, I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I last checked in here!  Between my frustration with Starbuck's lameness and injuries (more on that in a minute), my determination to spend every waking moment at the stable once she was better and my husband giving me a Kindle as an anniversary gift, I think I've cracked open my laptop maybe 5 times in all that time.  Anyhow I'm back and though I imagine I'll be a little more sporadic in my updates than before I owe it to myself and to Starbuck to keep up our journal.  So here's a brief re-cap of what we've been up to.

After several weeks of on-again off-again lameness, Starbuck finally seemed to be somewhat recovered so one fine day I tacked her up and took her out to the arena to longe her with her saddle and bridle on in hopes of riding her that day or the next.  After a few minutes of longeing I could see that she was moving really well and I brought her in to the middle of the circle for a rest and a head rub.  So she was standing there resting, then she put her head down to rub her leg with her muzzle, then she stepped in a loop of the longe line and before I could get her foot out of the loop something happened to majorly spook her (who knows what), her head went up and away she ran.  Since her leg was caught in the line I had to let her go and pray for the best, but the arena gate was open and she ended up running all the way to her paddock, where I found her grazing nervously.  But when I checked her out I saw that at some point the bit had gotten pulled against her cheek, giving her a nasty cut about an inch from the bars of her mouth.  And when I opened her mouth to take her bridle off I saw that the bit had also ripped nearly halfway through her tongue.

I can't even begin to tell you how bad I felt.  Here I have this creature who I'm trying to build up a foundation of trust with and the very equipment I'm using not only brings discomfort and pain, but actual injury.  I felt like I wasn't worthy of the responsability of even having a horse, not to mention training one.  I wrapped my arms around her neck and sobbed my apologies into her mane.  I came back to reality when she started nuzzling my pockets looking for cookies and realized that as serious as the problem was, she seemed to be holding it together better than I was.  So I wiped my face and called the vet, who calmed me down by telling me it wasn't an uncommon injury or even a particularly serious one and that the mouth heals much more quickly than other parts of the body, then prescribed a change in diet (no grain or anything with small particles which could get stuck in the wound) and daily rinses with medicated mouthwash until the wound closed.

So Starbuck was on soaked pellet food, straight up straw without any seed heads, alfalfa and bran mashes and had the best-smelling breath at the stable for a month (the vet was right, she healed up way faster than I expected).  She also got a good two weeks more of rest before I even tried to longe her again, so I spent lots of time grooming her and taking lessons on some of Marina's horses.  Finally, I got rid of the bit in lieu of a hackamore and worked her from the ground for about a week before saddling her up and seeing whether she would let me ride her for the first time in two months.  And guess what?  It took a few minutes to review the basic cues and aids and I could definitely tell that she'd lost some conditioning, but she didn't act up at all and even seemed to be happy to have me riding her again.  I honestly think she missed having a routine and being able to work off some steam without having to go into panic mode to do so.

Anyhow about two weeks have gone by since that first ride and I'm starting to think that Starbuck made some kind of seminal change over her "summer vacation".  She's calmer, more focused, more relaxed and overall tends to behave like a total professional both on the ground and under saddle.  Since we've been back on track, we've ridden in the wind and rain, started working trotting poles into almost every class, habitually ride on the scary side of the arena, are starting some lateral work (leg yielding along the arena wall) and have even gotten to canter (on purpose) a couple of times.  We've only had one "electrical" day brought on by some sudden chilly and windy weather, but even then her spooks were highly controllable and I was more worried about her posture (that head kept going up) than me falling off.  I know we'll still have our bad moments, but I think we've scaled another plateau - one where I feel safe riding her no matter what the weather or her mood is like and where we can work on figuring out a training routine which is enjoyable and productive for both of us.

So here's to giving your horse (and yourself) a break every now and then, to bitless bridles and to more conscious groundwork.  And maybe to writing just a little more often.

Photos

Thanks to my fabulous husband who tagged along with me to the stable the other day, I have some photos of the first time longeing Starbuck in a few weeks.  She's definitely almost healed completely from the hind-leg thing and as long as she doesn't injure herself acting like a crazy person as soon as I take her out of her paddock, I think I might even be able to start riding her again in the next couple of weeks.  Seeing her complete lack of control with the rope halter, I've decided that the next time I longe her I'm going to use some side reins just so she won't be tempted to be so wiggly.  Not too tight and not for too long so I don't strain any neck or back muscles, but I figure any adverse effects from a 20 minute longeing session with side reins will be better than her breaking a leg or a tendon out of sheer exuberance - yesterday she slipped and almost fell down during a particularly energetic spook.

She's still doing much better with her bugbites and I've taken advantage of her recovery time to take a few jumping classes on other horses which has been really, really fun!  I'm pretty sure I went over a 60 cm ex the other day which I know is pathetic but for me it was huge and such a thrill.  I've been able to work on my seat too - lots of two point, lots of rising or sitting trot with one or no stirrups, stretching, etc...

So I just threw all the photos in there, flattering or not.  If you want, skip to the end - the last three are the most exciting.  I especially enjoy the ones where I'm looking oh-so-lovingly at her butt while I spread muscle salve on it.  And here's another guessing game for you - one of them is NOT of Starbuck but of one of her lookalikes, can you guess which?